Okay, this is the official launch date of my original novel. I'm giving myself fourteen weeks in which to produce a contemporary-ish (set in 2002) mystery novel of some 90,000 words. The story will be told in the first person and is set in a small town on the coast of Carolina. (Deliberately vague on exactly where, but it is in reasonable driving distance of both Wilmington, NC, and Charleston, SC.) Working title is Coastal, Carolina since that's the working name of the town. That will almost certainly change.On this, the first day of the project, I have in hand
> a 2,000-word narrative outline;
> several pages of character, setting, and scene notes -- probably totaling another 6,000 words;
> a 7,000 word subplot I wrote in a mad frenzy on Saturday, July 21, which is pretty nifty but may not fit the final product.
Deadline for ms in the mail is Monday, November 5, 2007.
(Between now and then I'll need to figure out where to send it.)
Between now and then, I must also produce a 10-12,000 Chaos Irregulars story and another novel proposal for the UK market I am still trying to break into. There will almost certainly be other pitches along the way, but as of this moment I have no other product commitments (which is a very scary place to be.)
Someday I may figure out how to make one of those progress meters work. Then I'll most likely just include it in posts about other, more interesting topics without comment. Either way, I'll keep you guys posted -- a tactic to keep myself honest.
9 comments:
I've never heard of a subplot being referred to as 'pretty nifty' before :0) Sounds fab and suitably frenzied. Will be cracking the whip sporadically and keeping an eye on your progress - good luck!
I am so impressed! Best of luck!
Wow! Good luck :-)
Good luck! I wish I had your enthusiasm at the moment!
Wow! Just reading that made me feel tired! Good luck!
Oh gawd. I need a hand up. I bow to you Kevin, well done.
Don't "well done" me until I've accomplished the goal. there's a world of difference between "doable" and "done."
What this is, more than anything, is my personality. I can accomplish nothing by "working on" it. As in "I'm working on a novel." I've got decades old manuscripts that need just a bit more working on. What I can do is hit a deadline. In order to get this book written, I have to set a deadline and then take that deadline very seriously.
I'll keep y'all up to date on my progress during the Friday coffee breaks.
Good luck with that... makes me feel better about tackling my rewrite - I've put my meter up to show myself I mean business!
Good luck, looks like you've got yourself so organised! Keep us posted on how you are going - oh and by the way I am rubbish at the word metre thingy too. Helen told me how to do it but I haven't tried to re-tackle it yet so it's stuck.
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